The US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce endorsed Hillary Clinton Wednesday, saying she’ll be “America’s first small business president.”
“Hillary Clinton will be America’s first American small business president. She grew up in a small business. She understands the challenges of small businesses. And throughout her campaign, she’s engaged our organization and our business owners all over the country,” the group’s president, Javier Palomarez, told CNN’s “New Day.”
“She has illustrated that she understands what we need to do to continue to drive the American economy and she understands the vital nature of and importance of American small businesses,” he added.
Palomarez said members of the group believe that Clinton’s rival, GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, is unfit and unworthy to be president despite his business career.
“Donald Trump has run a campaign of divisiveness of hate-filled rhetoric that has torn people apart, torn this nation apart,” he said. “He has proven himself to be unworthy and unfit for the highest office of this land.”
The endorsement came following the second night of the Republican National Convention, which was themed “Make America Work Again.” But Palomarez said he did not hear any speakers discuss Trump’s plan to address the concerns of business owners.
Members of the group met Tuesday with Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who they previously endorsed in the Republican primaries. At a US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce event about a mile away from the Quicken Loans Arena, where the convention is being held, Kasich expressed his disappointment in not getting further in the Republican race, but not in avoiding the proceedings.
“I’m disappointed that message didn’t take hold, but it doesn’t mean I give up my message,” he said. “And so I am thrilled to be in Cleveland, I’m having the time of my life. It’s just not for me to go to that, because that’s not where I think I need to be in terms of what I have stood for through the presidential campaign.”